Month: August 2019

THE BEST OF THE REST !!!

To save these ‘fitness fashion’ images we shot in Monaco and Cannes from being confined to the lonely depths of my hard drive ( ), I thought I’d post a series of photos which I just didn’t have space to showcase during the summer blogging frenzy! If nothing else, it’s making me think of sunnier climes whilst the rainy British winter unleashes it’s worst; but also, it reminds me that we’re only 5 months away from things warming up once again, so it’s almost time to start getting back to bikini shape – see them all below…

For any 2014 newcomers to Fitness On Toast, firstly, welcome . Secondly by way of background, last year I discovered what has now become one of my favourite luxury sportswear brands – Monreal London – and documented the rise of gorgeous fitness clothes in THIS POST.  Their clothes are glamorous, beautifully made and practical, lavishing materials and shapes that flatter and gently exaggerate our ‘good curves’. It’s all very fresh and trendy, with dresses and separates where white is the base colour, flicked with some sparing and geometric colour/textures to break things up. I loved last years collection (some still available at Matches), but I can’t wait to show you their SS14 collection – it is simply gorgeous!

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“GRAZIA MILLE” !!!

I’m so excited to have been featured in the latest edition of Grazia Magazine published today (and on the homepage of their online site HERE). With a focus on Instagram as their source of ‘fitspiration’ (I’m @fitnessontoast), they’ve listed me as one of their four most motivational fitness blogs! All I can say is ‘Grazia mille‘ guys, feeling very flattered ? My [belated] resolution to you, dear readers, is for plenty of delicious recipes, challenging workouts and chic looks to come in 2014. Stay tuned…

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MY GRAZIA ‘SS14 GYM OUTFIT’ DETAILS…

Just a quick Fitness Fashion post in response to the emails I’ve had asking for details on the Grazia outfit. I was asked to put something together comprising SS14 collection pieces, so I reached out to some of my favourite sports apparel brands for their new collection pieces to feature. Here’s an inventory:

JACKET: Nike ‘All Over Flash’ Women’s Running Jacket, available now HERE
SPORTS BRA: Sweaty Betty ‘Stamina’ Sports Bra in Lime Green, will be available from www.sweatybetty.com
TOP: Monreal wide-mesh cotton sports top with Lime Green trim, will be available from www.matchesfashion.com
LEGGINGS: Vevie ‘Brunswick’ satin ruche, as I’d featured in this previous post  and available HERE
BAG: Sports bag, £850, Monreal London, will be available from www.matchesfashion.com
SHOES: Gel-Super J33, £100, Asics, will be available from www.asics.co.uk

And for anyone wondering about the other shoes I was wearing which they’d featured, the fabulous rainbow-multicoloured ones, they’re Asics Gel-Noosa Tri 8’s, available right now, HERE! See more detail shots from the photoshoot here…

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FITNESS ON JUICE – I’M DOING DETOX WEEK !!!

ETHOS: To tackle this at the outset, I don’t associate with the word ‘diet’ because of all the unrealistic and futile notions it conjures up. Regular readers of Fitness On Toast will know that I favour the long-term, sustainable and healthy lifestyle choice of eating clean for most of the time, and indulging in the odd treat on occasion. But between today, 13th January, and Friday 17th, I’ve been asked by Philips to take part in “The World’s Biggest Juice Detox”, which will involve me giving up on solids!

SCANDAL WAIVER: I’m not undertaking this ‘detox diet’ because I want to “lose 5lb in 5 days” as the literature implores. Neither am I looking to enter the controversy around whether it’s healthy to sustain the body on what is essentially just nutrient-infused fructose (fruit sugar). I recognise there are benefits and disbenefits, but that’s not what I’m after here. I am undertaking this in the spirit of discovery, to find out whether I feel a perceptible difference in myself by consuming only assorted blends of juices 6x a day. It’s an experiment that might very well  work, or it might not, but the idea has piqued my interest, so I’m guinea-pigging myself and I’ll soon let you know whether it’s worth the considerable hype!

LOGISTICAL NIGHTMARE? To execute my fresh juicing each day, I’ve been supplied with this centrifugal juicer, and a VAST box of fresh fruit and vegetables by Philips. It’s enough to get me through the full 5 days, and has absolutely TAKEN OVER my poor creaking fridge, in which there is barely room for one extra cherry.

I’ll be updating my Instagram (@FitnessOnToast) & Twitter with regular ‘juice blends’ (with ingredients list) in case you fancy whipping up one or two of them along with me. The juice I made below is their ⚡?Turbo with a kick!?? which involves 2 Apples 1/4 medium Pineapple 1 handful Spinach 1/2 peeled Lime 1/2 Celery stick 3cm chunk Cucumber 1cm Ginger root 1/4 medium Avocado Ice cubes – yum! I’ll also post my final review of the program here at the end of the week, so keep an eye out for the update. Have a good week

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SUN-SALUTE YOGA ATOP ‘THE SHARD’ !!!

This week, I was invited by Gap to a very special yoga class. It took place 1016 feet (310m) above London’s pavements, on the 69th floor of Europe’s tallest building The Shard at the crack of dawn, to watch the sunrise over a stunning 360-degree view of London. Certainly not your average sweaty bikram backdrop! Given the weather was utterly flawless with just a wisp of fluffy haze on the distant horizon, the spectacular natural theatrics didn’t disappoint; This was quite simply the most epic and magically uplifting yoga session I’ve ever done! Get the review & pictures below…

When I arrived at London Bridge station at 07:00, the City was threatening, shrouded and pitch black. From ‘The View’, you could see London’s veiny little roads illuminated by millions of Christmas tree fairy lights (though actually street lamps). Then at 07:45, at altitude, we began the session by waking up the muscles, stretching out in the ‘downward dog’ and similar poses. Within minutes, the sun slowly began to break from the horizon, throwing off a gorgeous deep red glow, warming the sky and the all-glass room we we’re in. Seconds later, it sparkled like gold as it was saying ‘good morning’ through the last of the mist, and by the time I left the building it was a perfect sunny winter’s day.

In truth, I’m not particularly good at yoga, and this class was a reminder of just how relatively inflexible I really am. I do a lot of weight training and although I always stretch and use the foam roller, I think a good yoga session a week would do me wonders. That was why one of my 2014 New Years resolutions is to improve my flexibility through this ancient Indian exercise going back c.5,000 years!! Aside from improving flexibility it can help build strength (especially the core), hone balance, and may also help those who suffer from lower back pains, high blood pressure, heart disease, and general aches and pains.

I find that the focus on breathing and the mind is of greatest benefit to me; why you ask? “Surely everyone knows how to breathe and think!?” Yes, but doing it well is harder than it sounds, and I find that an awareness of one’s breathing and thoughts helps us to control them. The removal of unnecessary mental anguish can help improve our overall well-being, is de-stressing and can even lift the mood. That, combined with a stunning vista like this left me simultaneously invigorated and relaxed – a unique feeling that I only seem able to get from yoga!

For the occasion, GapFit generously kitted me out with an entire outfit which I’m wearing in the shots. The clothes are very ‘Gap’ – relaxed and comfortable, with a strong emphasis on appealing details. I particularly liked the soft, satin feel of the pants and the fun patterned print; some pants tend to ‘dig’ into your waist, but it was though I’d forgotten I was wearing any at all – they were that comfortable!

(Gap’s photography provided by SuzyJay.com) 


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ITS A WALK IN THE PARK !!!

This post rounds up what I think are the “6 key health benefits of walking”. Boring? No, actually quite topical; I’ve received a few emails asking what to do if you a) hardly have any time to workout and b) haven’t trained for a very long time (or in fact, ever). For this scenario, I think it’s wise to ease in gently; ‘going for a walk’ might not feel like a workout per se, but if you do it regularly and properly, it comes with several wondrous health benefits, which I discuss later. Above all, you don’t need membership, and it can be squeezed in whenever there’s a bit of extra time; walking to or from work; on lunch breaks; on holiday as an eager tourist etc!

Depending on your current fitness level, a brisk strut may very well get you sweating and raise the heart rate too. As you progress you can increase the distance and/or speed, switch between high and moderate intensity, decrease the ‘recovery periods’, and find hills/steps to climb. If you’re unsure how many steps you take in a day how about trying out a pedometer; Britain’s NHS suggests we should aim to take >10,000 steps a day to see health benefits, which sounds VAST, but our lazy-day average is supposedly c. 4,000, so it’s definitely achievable! Here are my top 6 health benefits you’ll enjoy by going for a little walk:

1) DEVELOPS STRONGER BONES: Walking is far less strenuous on your joints than running, and can reduce the risk of osteoporosis by increasing bone mineral density. If you’ve a brittle, battle-scarred skeleton, this is a great way to exercise in a relatively low-impact manner.

2) HEALTHY HEART: High blood pressure and high cholesterol – both of which are significant contributors to heart disease – are proven to be reduced by walking regularly. The process has a regulating effect on the blood pressure, whilst it promotes a reduction in LDL cholesterol (the bad type) and an increase in HDL cholesterol (the good type!).

3) CONTROLS WEIGHT: Depending on fitness level and the intensity, a little aerobic walk can get you sweating and raise your heart rate, thereby toasting calories. A 30 minute walk at pace (4 mph) will burn c.150 calories, which is another cupcake gone – *poof*!

4) CLEARS THE MIND: The psychological benefits of a long walk are such that it can help clear a mind full of stress and worry, reduce depression and even improve the quality of sleep! Wandering around a gorgeous park with a friend and taking in some of mother nature’s happenings, can generate a fabulous serotonin response to get your mind humming along nicely, whilst also boosting your Vitamin D intake (which we can’t get easily from food)!

5) ENERGISES THE BODY: Walking at pace is a superb way to promote oxygen to flow around your body, reducing muscle tension and stiffness, and encouraging a more energised constitution. Just a 10 minute walk after lunch-at-your-desk is a fabulous way to burn some calories and power up at the same time! It’s also a great ‘active recovery’ after a workout.

6) TONES UP YOUR MUSCLES: A hill-walk every day can really bring shapely definition to the calves (through the ‘push-off’ phase of the step), quads (used in the extension), even glutes (employed when the hips rock during the walk). Increasing the pace will engage the hamstrings, hip flexors, and buttocks, whilst increasing the incline will work the calves more. A mild swing of the arms should also help to introduce some tone there, compounded with arm weights.

I was wearing: Missoni headband, River Island maxi dress, Asos shoes. All pictures shot at the Grand Hotel Du Cap Ferrat

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THE IMPORTANCE OF CHEATING !!!

“Dear Clean Diet; I’ve cheated on you, and I’m not in any way apologetic”. On Sunday, I was invited to a delicious ‘fashion-themed’ tea at London’s Berkeley Hotel, and I happily accepted, fully aware that it would contain very empty calories… But I have a theory that eating clean all of the time, forever, is actually quite boring, antisocial, and unrealistic – in short, cutting out fun is no way to live life!

My solution? Cheating, once a week. A day where I know there’s an enjoyable treat in store. Something that might well be 500 empty, purposeless calories just waiting to be savoured. It’s NOT a day when I binge mercilessly for 24 hours, but rather an isolated event on a pre-specified day. I know that if I plan it around doing something social (like, for example this tea), there’s less danger of falling off the ‘clean eating’ train for the rest of the week. It’s a psychological indulgence to reward a week of solid discipline, and I consider it really helpful as an accompaniment to any reasonable training regime.

Regular readers of Fitness On Toast will know that my ethos is centred around a sustainable lifestyle choice of eating clean for most of the time, training regularly, and enjoying the occasional treat to balance things out, and punctuate the focus! HOWEVER, it’s not just some crazy ethos plucked out of the air; professional body-builders see value in this practice as well. Their theory is threefold;

1) GLYCOGEN: A cheat day is supposed to encourage the restoration of the body’s diet-starved glycogen levels, which help to transport proteins back to muscles more readily,
2) POWER UP: There is fatigue-reduction and the concept of ‘replenishing the carbohydrate store’ to provide more energy to train harder at the next workout,
3) METABOLISM: and a radical calorie-bomb is thought to shock the metabolism back into life, after the body perceives starvation and has entered a low-energy conservation mode.

There are some downsides to this practice too, and ‘cheat obsession’ is definitely to be avoided, but if your one-treat-a-week complements a balanced regime of healthy eating and regular training, all in sustainable moderation, you can cheat on your diet regularly, guilt free ? !

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JUST WORK OUT IN YOUR HOTEL ROOM !!!

Here at Fitness On Toast, I’ve literally had some emails asking about how to best keep on the straight-and-narrow when you travel abroad on business. This blogging malarkey takes me on my share of foreign adventures, so I can associate with the difficulties often faced; croissants and jam at the airport lounge, a tempting and yummy lunch at the destination, a hotel with delicious welcome-goodies perched on the check-in desk AND WHAT – NO GYM ?!? Fear not, all is not lost.

For travel-diet tips, see my post from last summer on Eating Healthily Whilst Travelling – but what about the exercise side of the equation? The pictures in this post might look comically goofy (and they absolutely are), but they hold the key to a simple travel ethos that’s gotten me out of trouble on so many occasions; half a workout is better than no workout at all! In these shots, I’m doing my basic 20-minute hotel-room routine that includes 3 circuits of the following (with minimal rest):

1) Press Ups – to target the pectorals, triceps and deltoids – 15 reps
2) Squats – to target the glutes, quads and hamstrings – 15 deep reps
3) Step-ups – to target the quads, hamstrings and calves – 15 reps
4) Lunges – to target the quads – 15 reps
5) Scissor-crunches – to target the upper abdominals – 15 reps
6) Tricep Dips – to target the triceps – 15 reps
7) Raised-leg crunches – to target the lower abdominals – 15 reps
8) Crazy Jumping Around – for cardio and stress release (try it! ahem) – loads of reps
9) Calming Yoga-inspired Meditation: to rest in between sets. 3 minutes should suffice.

Try 3 sets of the above next time you’re abroad; the whole thing is so quick and easy to do, and requires neither a gym nor any gym kit, so you can travel even lighter!!! Also, two ‘half workouts’ equal a whole ? Voila, guilt-free travelling!

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AN URBAN WORKOUT WITH ‘STRIVE’ !!!

Yesterday I was invited to a ‘guest blogger’ session with Strive, a Navy SEAL-inspired workout which focuses on functional speed, strength and coordination, and is  run by a pair of Cambridge MBA endurance athletes who’ve previously worked with Navy SEALs (though the atmosphere of the class is anything but ‘bootcamp’).

As a healthy person, there’s a silent danger that you’re just going about your active life, following your fitness routine, and one day, you realise you’re Bill Murray and you’re living a gym-going version of ‘Groundhog Day’; same thing, same time, all over again, x 10… I think that the beauty of classes like the Strive experience are that they mix it up for the body and mind, in a social and encouraging group environment. The use of chains, tyres, heavy medicine balls, sprints, competitive time-trials, stacking boxes; you just cannot predict the random actions / motions that your body is asked to perform. I reckon that unpredictability is a genuinely effective way to shock the muscles into change mode!

One of the Navy SEAL mottos is “the only easy day was yesterday” – this session certainly invoked that notion! An endurance experience of ‘plyo-pyramids’, ‘partner exchanges’, ‘static core holds’, ‘burst sprints’ and ‘team tyres’ which are all pretty demanding, and they pride themselves on never repeating 2 sessions, so that you’re constantly kept guessing. All images were shot at the Westway Sports Centre,  under the A40 in very changeable London weather conditions – which felt a little bit like hell week might ?

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STYLISH WORKOUT GEAR ON A BUDGET ???

Some wonderfully engaged readers have been emailing me asking that I investigate some affordable fitness fashion options. At first, that sounds like a tough ask, because the price points on everything we tend to consider fashionable in the fitness world seem to be eye-wateringly expensive; they become these elated objects of desire in our mind’s eyes, like little gods in their own right! However, I think that doesn’t have to be the case. A keen eye on the internet, where something is always on sale *somewhere*, is the best way to steal a bargain, but failing that, you might look in the less obvious places…

This post features some wonderfully affordable workout kit from the high street brand, Bershka, to fulfil just such a brief… I found the clothes on an aimless stroll down Oxford Street and made a journey into the store to see what they’ve got that could be used for blog purposes; I was a bit shocked to see a whole fitness collection ready to go! From the options, I picked out the Neoprene Sweatshirt (£29.99), the Racerback Sports T-Shirt (£14.99),  the ‘Waistband Detail’ Sports Leggings (£19.99), and the Mesh Sports Bag (£29.99). I’ve teamed them with a new pair of shoes too, the Adidas Boosts, which were also more affordable than I’d feared and feel impossibly springy underfoot, as if they’re doing more than just recycling my wasted energy, but injecting a shot of extra power! The entire Bershka outfit leaves you with a fiver’s change from £100, which is less than some gym t-shirts I’ve seen in sports departments!

Over the coming months, I’ll be on the lookout for more chic and affordable fitness fashion to continue to prove that it is possible to workout stylishly without breaking the bank! Think Gap, Zara, Primark etc. Full pictures from the photoshoot at the link below, and more affordability to follow

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